A file picture of Hamburg’s Rafael van der Vaart attends a training session at Imtech-Arena in Hamburg, Germany. (EPA)

DPA/Hamburg


SV Hamburg face radical changes on and off the pitch after barely avoiding what would have been a first ever relegation from the Bundesliga. Sunday’s 1-1 draw in a play-off at Greuther Fuerth, which was good enough to stay in the top flight, was greeted with more relief than joy at the end of the worst season of the former European champions.
The game may well have been the last for top scorer Pierre-Michel Lasogga and Dutch playmaker Rafael van der Vaart.
A mere 27 points from 34 Bundesliga games, the worst defence in professional German football which let in 75 goals, a terrible away record and just three wins in the 15 games under the latest coach Mirko Slomka highlight the multiple woes on the pitch.
Off it, Hamburg have run up deficits in the past three seasons for overall debts estimated at 100 million euros .
In order to be fit for the future, club members are to vote Sunday on new structures by turning the professional division of the multiple-sports club into a shareholder company, with the intention of attracting investors. While there is a general consensus about the necessity of such a move, there are differing concepts.
“A lot has to be done. Really a lot,” said left back Marcell Jansen about the situation on and off the pitch. Slomka said: “We must make changes in many areas. We need new faces for the club.”
Hamburg are the only founding member of the Bundesliga from 1963 who have never been relegated.
But they seriously flirted with disaster, losing the last five Bundesliga matches and still escaping into the play-off where they didn’t win either (0-0, 1-1) against Fuerth who were third in the second division.
Hamburg would like to keep Lasogga, but the striker is only on loan from Hertha Berlin who insist they want him back now, and probably sell him on for good money which Hamburg don’t have.
“The club and I would do everything to keep him. But the chances are slim,” Slomka said.
However, sports director Oliver Kreuzer would likely not object to a sale of the expensive playmaker Van Der Vaart, who has failed to make a major impact in his second spell at the club.
Slomka, meanwhile, is Hamburg’s third head coach of the season and 10th in the past decade. Long gone are the glory days with the three league titles between 1979 and 1983, the European Cup 1983, and the 1987 German cup their last silverware.
Hamburg finished in the top five in five seasons between 2000 and 2009 and also reached the UEFA Cup semis twice in 2009 and 2010, but they have declined since then, already coming close to relegation in 15th place in 2012.
The shape of the team for the new season remains unclear but Slomka will have his work cut out in order to have a better season in 2014-15 and keep their famous Bundesliga clock - now at 50 years 267 days - ticking.
“We have used up all our luck. We were very lucky and should not count on having any more luck next season,” defender Heiko Westermann said.